Aline Quester, Ph.D.

Areas of Expertise

• accession quality, personnel retention, attrition
• military retirement programs
• senior enlisted personnel
• occupational choice
• Hispanics in the military
• federal income tax policy
• non-citizens in the military
• applied microeconomic problems
• women in the military, women in the labor force, minorities in the military
• statistical models, limited-dependent variable models, economic analyses

During her 31 years with CNA, Aline Quester, Ph.D., an applied microeconomist, has worked as vice president, team leader, department director, scientific analyst, project director, and analyst. She is a specialist in military manpower and personnel issues—from recruiting and placement to retention. She is currently directing two studies for Accession Policy in OSD, one on population representation and the other on the delayed entry program.

Another focus of Quester’s work has been on operational tempo and Marine Corps retention, diversity in the Marine Corps, and stress on the force. Recently, she directed a study for the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Accession Policy) that looked at recruiting non-citizens in the various Services.

Quester is known for her work on manpower performance indicators for the USMC Manpower and Reserve Affairs website, for the Street to Fleet study, and for a study for the Chief of Navy Education and Training that explored how to better integrate Navy recruit, training, and manpower databases to obtain a broader assessment of Navy policies.

She has used statistical models and applied microeconomic principles to analyze military retirement programs, personnel retention and attrition, women in the labor force, and Hispanics in the military. She has a continuing interest in women and minorities, both in occupational choice and in labor market outcomes.

Education

• Ph.D., Economics, Tufts University, 1976
• M.A., Economics, Tufts University, 1968
• B.A., Political Science, Wellesley College, 1965

Selected Publications and Reports

• Marine Corps Deployment Tempo and retention from FY04 through FY07 (with Diana Lien and Robert Shuford), CNA Research Memorandum D0018757.A2/Final, October 2008.
• Marine Corps Separation Rates: What’s Happened Since FY00 (with Laura Kelley, Cathy Hiatt, and Robert Shuford), CNA Research Memorandum D0018759.A2/Final, October 2008.
• Retirement Choice 2008 (with Gary Lee and Robert Shuford), CNA Research Memorandum D0017379.A1/Final, December 2007.
• Black and Hispanic Marines: Their Accession, Representation, Success and Retention in the Corps (with Anita Hattiangadi, Gary Lee, Cathy Hiatt, and Robert Shuford), CNA Research Memorandum D0016910.A1/Final, September 2007.